Friday, January 27, 2006

So there he was standing on the corner under the light, usual spot for horse players reading the form sheets. This is not a good time to interrupt a horse player. I learned that first hand, and a do mean hand, from my father. Believe me, first and foremost Beansy was a horse player. "How's it going?" I stammered. "Not bad," he responded. "With a little luck I could break even today." In horse player parlance, that is a good day, when you break even. As one horse player said to another, "I hope I break even today, I need the money."

I asked if he had seen any hockey games this year and he replied that he had not. "I wanted to go to Mark's game but they wanted 250 scungilli's to sit in the nose bleeds." The 'nose bleeds' are what we called the blue seats in the old days. "Do you know how many exacta's I can play with 250 scungilli's?" he asked, not really expecting an answer from a heretic like me. Told that he missed a great night, he looked skyward and said he really did miss a good night but it had nothing to do with hockey.

Asked about whether he had followed any games he replied that he had and noticed that the checking had picked up a bit. He was impressed with the hitting of Darius Kasparaitis the last few games which he said reminded him of "Leaping" Lou Fontinato, who played with the Rangers in the 50's and 60's. He had quite a run, and I do mean run, until he ran into Gordie Howe at the Garden one night. In a fairly one sided brawl Mr. Hockey did a number on Leaping Louie which kind of put an end to Louie's running days. But Beansy liked that kind of player as we all did. I mentioned to Beansy that Kaspy's hitting reminded me more of Bill Moe, who played for the Rangers from 1944-45 to 1948-49. Moe usually came in low, well below the knees, and it was beautiful watching the opponents doing cartwheels as they crashed to the ice.

I mentioned to Beansy that the Sabre coach, Lindy Ruff, complained that Kasparaitis put a dirty hit on his player, Tim Connolly, the Sabre's leading scoring. Ruff labeled Kasparaitis "a cheap shot artist." "Cheap shot artist?" bellowed Beansy, "that hypocrite! Where was he when Mike Grier ran Kasparaitis into the glass in Buffalo." Mike Grier ran Kasparaitis into the boards? "Hey!" said Beansy, "I read it in one of your columns." Sure enough, I went back to check and on November 23, 2005, The Ranger Pundit wrote:

"Mike Grier charged Kasparaitis into the boards and as Darius was skating off bleeding a Sabre punched him in the back of the head."

There was no outcry from Lindy Ruff then. I guess that was yesterday's news.

Grier went after Kasparaitis that night in Buffalo trying to goad him and did the same thing in the Garden. Maybe the next time we play them, one more game, in the Garden, we ought to bring Purinton back for one game just to challenge Grier. Does he still owe a ten game suspension? Listening to the phoney moans and complaints from Lindy Ruff is sickening. Kudos to Colin Campbell for calling the play what it was, a legitimate check. He even absolved Kasparaitis from the hit he put on Marshall of the Devils. Beansy was very happy with those calls by Colie, but he would still like to see more physical play from the Rangers. So would the 'nose bleeds,' Beansy, so would the 'nose bleeds.'

All he has done since Tuesday night's game is bitch and whine about Darius Kasparaitis' hit on Tim Connolly which put the Sabre out for an anticipated 6 weeks with a sprained MCL. Kaspar was NOT penalized on the play, and by all accounts the league is not taking any action against him.

I kind of hope the Rangers call up Peter Worrell for the March 27th game against the Sabres, just so he can deliver a thorough ass-whooping to anyone who even looks at a Ranger player cross-eyed. (Then I never want to see Worrell near a Ranger lockerroom again.)

The local media was still talking about the Kaspy hit today and Jagr's cold. Is Jagr's cold(bronchitis) being aggravated because he's afraid to take any medicine that might run afoul of Olympic drug testing?

The Ranger Pundit

I'm Mike Savino, the Ranger Pundit. I have been a NY Rangers fan since the 1937 - 1938 season. The first game I saw in person was in 1943 against the Blackhawks. My biggest disappointment was the '49-50 season and our loss to the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup finals.